Video 03: New York City is Affordable, Part 2

May 16, 2019May 16, 2019

In this video, I compare the budgets of two people: a single person living in Indianapolis making $10/hr (above minimum wage there), and a single person living in New York City making $15/hr (exactly minimum wage there). The result: if you’re working in something that could be considered a “minimum-wage job,” there’s a good chance you’d take home more money in NYC than in the middle of the country.

If you’re watching YouTube videos about moving to New York, and someone gives you a list of expenses and calls it a budget–that’s wrong. Unfortunately that’s a lot of YouTubers who talk about moving to New York. But that’s not what a budget is.

A budget is an estimate of expenses and income for a set period of time. A budget doesn’t just have all the money going out, but also all of the money coming in.

Both of those numbers together tell you whether a place is affordable or unaffordable, expensive or cheap. If you only have a list of expenses, you just know how much a place costs, without corresponding knowledge of how much it returns.

Comparative Budget Calculator

So: in my video, I break down a comprehensive budget that includes expenses and income. The Excel calculator that I use is embedded below, and you can use it yourself; I recommend changing the yellow cells, but leaving the white ones alone. If you refresh the page, the calculator will go back to its original form.

Explanation of Budget Numbers: Expenses

Car payment: there’s so much variability here. I took the monthly cost of a used car from here and cut it almost in half–this budget is for someone working close to minimum wage.

Parking: this cost is a composite of several things. The potential cost of parking even semi-regularly within the city, either in a garage or at a meter; the cost of parking tickets; any increase in rent to provide you with parking. Lower this number as you see fit.

Gas was calculated like this: 1,200 miles driven a month in a car that averages 25 miles per gallon, with gas at $2.50 a gallon.

Monthly car maintenance was calculated like this: I assumed a cost of 4.97 cents per mile driven, plus 1 cent a mile for wear on tires. This totals 5.97 cents per mile of incurred maintenance costs, and since I assumed an average 1,200 drive per month above, that means an average monthly cost of $71.64. Of course, this wouldn’t be paid every month. You’d pay larger sums for maintenance that are then averaged across the whole year.

Another note about car ownership: having a car brings much more risk and potential expense into your life. One accident can land you with a four-figure fix that a New Yorker wouldn’t ever have, not to mention an increased insurance rate.

New Yorker’s transportation: a monthly metro card with unlimited subway use is $127. I added $30 more for incidental Ubers and taxis.

Entertainment is a small flat fee that I sort of pulled from thin air. It’s the max you’d likely spend if you’re on minimum wage.

Food was calculated roughly, since it varies so much by one’s size and level of physical activity. I spend about $200-250 as a tall, active 28-year-old man. You can find food prices for Manhattan here–they’re quite reasonable.

Subscriptions: like entertainment, I pulled this out of the air. Common subscriptions I would expect people to have are things like Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and some personal product (mine is Dollar Shave Club).

Gym: there are cheap gyms almost everywhere, so this is just a ballpark figure.

Internet: This is half out of thin air, half real. I used central Indianapolis (see here) as an example, and saw that internet speeds of 500 mbps and higher become expensive quite quickly. RCN is a popular internet provider in NYC, although it’s not universally available, and they have a 500 mbps plan for $35/month (that’s also the one I have), which I split with my roommate.

Misc: laundry, haircuts, contact solution, renewing a license, new work shoes, &c. The $150 number is out of thin air, but seems realistic. I couldn’t find reliable data to nail this down, so I ballparked it.

Renter’s insurance: this assumes a price of $200/year, although there are much cheaper options available, like Lemonade.

Utilities: this is a ballpark. There are too many variables here, like: how many roommates to split the bill, how big is the apartment, etc. In New York, who pays for heating gets interesting.

Rent: ballpark numbers based on canvasing sites like these for New York and apartments.com and zillow.com.

Calculating the net pay in months with two paychecks, and those with three:
([hourly rate] x [40 hours per week] x [52 weeks per year]) – [taxes] = annual net pay. Divide this by 26, which is the number of paychecks in a year if you’re paid every two weeks. Multiply this number by two to get your two-paycheck months’ take-home pay, and by three for the two magical months where you have three paychecks per month.